Artists

Composer

Composer, cellist, and conductor, Heidi Jacob is Associate
Professor of Music at Haverford College. A graduate of both the Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School, she has performed throughout the United States and Europe, including the Phillips Collection in Washington DC, Bedford Springs Festival, "Mozart on the Square" in Philadelphia, the Dubrovnik Festival, and on National Public Radio. She has recorded for Capstone Records, Albany Records, and Navona Records, and was featured on WRTI's "Notes from Philadelphia," highlighting performances of her album conducting the Chamber Orchestra of Bryn Mawr. In addition, Curt Cacioppo's "Invocation and Dance of the Mountain Gods," conducted by Jacob, from the album LAWS OF THE PIPE was recently selected by PARMA Recordings for inclusion on the label's online digital release FINE MUSIC, Vol. 4.

In June 2011, Jacob completed her D.M.A. in composition from Temple University, where she studied with Matthew Greenbaum, Richard Brodhead, and Maurice Wright. Her compositions have won prizes in the International Alliance for Women in Music Competition (Judith Lang Zaimont Prize division) for her work for piano, Regard á Schubert: a Fantasy Impromptu, as well as the Network for New Music's Poetry Project for her song Rosetta Stone for soprano, cello and piano, which was premiered at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia in January of 2008. JacobÕs solo and chamber music works have been performed at Summer Stars Classics series in Ocean Grove New Jersey, The Philadelphia Chamber Music Series, Rutgers University's Complex Weave: Women and Identity in Contemporary Art installation, mphibian, New Music and Video HIArt Gallery, New York City, at The New Music Forum in San Francisco CA, and by the Momenta String Quartet, The Hildegard Chamber Players, bassoonist Pascal Gallois, flutists Mimi Stillman and Adeline Tomasone, cellist Michal Schmidt and cellist Thalia Moore of Earplay, Jeffrey Solow, and pianist Charles Abramovic. Her chamber orchestra works have been performed by The Argento Ensemble and Temple University's Contemporary Music Ensemble. Her cycle of songs on the poetry of Julia Alvarez, Beginning Again, for soprano, violin and piano commissioned by Vermont based L'Ensemble has been performed in Italy and the East Coast and can be heard on their album Poetry into Song.haverford.edu/faculty/hjacob

of
Albums

Heidi Jacob

Composer

Described by the Warsaw Music Journal as "unquestionably one of the greatest performers of 20th century music," and the New York Times as "an artist of intense concentration and conviction," Jeffrey Jacob received his education from the Juilliard School (Master of Music) and the Peabody Conservatory (Doctorate), and counts Mieczyslaw Munz, Carlo Zecchi, and Leon Fleisher as his principal teachers. Since his debut with the London Philharmonic in Royal Festival Hall, he has appeared as piano soloist with over 25 orchestras internationally including the Moscow, St. Petersburg, London, Seattle, Portland, Indianapolis, Charleston, Sao Paulo and Brazil National Symphonies, the Silesian, Moravian, North Czech, and Royal Queenstown Philharmonics. A noted proponent of contemporary music, he has performed the world premieres of works written for him by George Crumb, Vincent Persichetti, Gunther Schuller, Samuel Adler, Francis Routh, Jianjun He, and many others. He has performed solo recitals in London, Dublin, Glasgow, Berlin, Cologne, Munich, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Prague, Warsaw, Bucharest, Milan, Madrid, Helsinki, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Quito, Havana, Beijing, Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo, Seoul, Jakarta, Sydney, Auckland, Toronto, Ottawa, and throughout the United States.

Jacob has recorded over 50 works for solo piano and piano and orchestra including his critically acclaimed series of albums of the complete piano music of Samuel Barber and George Crumb, and major works of Bela Bartok. Fanfare Magazine recently devoted a feature article to his series of albums for New Ariel Recordings entitled "Contemporary American Eclectic Music for the Piano." Additionally, he has made radio recordings for Radio Warsaw, Radio Prague, and Brazil National Radio, as well as a series of recordings of American music for the BBC.

As a composer, he has written four symphonies, three piano concertos, and numerous works for piano and chamber ensemble. Raymond Leppard and the Indianapolis Symphony premiered his Symphony: Winter Lightning. The Moscow and St. Petersburg Symphonies premiered respectively his Piano Concertos 1 and 2 with the composer as soloist. The Gregg Smith Singers premiered his Sleeping at Last for mixed chorus and solo cello. Jacob's Persistence of Memory was premiered by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony at the 1999 College Music Society National Convention, and was selected by the Charles Ives Center for American Music for a performance by the Charleston Symphony at the 2002 Charleston Spoleto Festival. Other works have been premiered and recorded by the Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Orquesta de Baja California, the Chamber Orchestra of the Rhein, the North Czech Philharmonic, the New England and Cavani Quartets and sopranos Mary Nessinger and Laurel Thomas. Two albums of Jacob's orchestral music have been released by Centaur Records and Vienna Modern Masters, and recordings of individual works appear on several labels including Albany, Opus One, Capstone, and New Ariel. Currently Artist-in-Residence at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame IN, he recently received the Artist of the Year Award from the International New Music Consortium at New York University for his work as composer, pianist and educator.
JeffreyJacob.org

of
Albums

Jeffrey Jacob

Jeffrey Jacob

Composer

Composer Mark Eliot Jacobs, born in 1960, lives in southern Oregon’s Rogue River Valley. He is a frequent participant in the musical life of the valley: principal trombonist in the Rogue Valley Symphony, and musician with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, among other engagements. He is an adjunct instructor at Southern Oregon University where he has taught in the areas of music theory, composition, and low brass. Mark holds the degree Doctor of Music from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois in Music Composition (1986).

Mark has written a wide range of music, including orchestra, band, musical theater, and chamber music. The 2011 production of Bertolt Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle at Southern Oregon University, Ashland, Oregon featured Mark’s original musical score. The Medford Mail Tribune declared it an “amazing collection of original compositions." In 2012 he completed The Orchard City under a commission from the Youth Symphony of Southern Oregon for their 25th anniversary. It is scheduled for performance in March 2013.

Las Ranas de Katanchel (2010) is dedicated to Mónica Hernández and Aníbal González of the Hacienda Katanchel, located near Mérida in the Mexican state of Yucatán. It is a tone poem built upon two basic themes: the ecology of the hacienda and Mayan mythology from both the Yucatec and Quiché Maya. The ancient book of the Quiché, the Popol Vuh, figures prominently. Recordings of the frogs (“las ranas”), birds, and insects of the Yucatan play a prominent role in both the natural and mythological aspects of the piece.

of
Albums

Various Artists

Composer

Jirásek's work has been represented at a number of venues and festivals throughout the world since 1989. He has composed music for distinguished performers and stages, such as Bread and Circuses for six percussionists (Munich Biennale, 1992), recomposition of St. Luke's Passion according to J.S. Bach's manuscript, and Carl Orff's concept (Munich Biennale, 1996; Minneapolis, USA, 2000), Concerto for Organ and Small Orchestra To Dance with the Universe (Portland Chamber Orchestra, 2012), Missa propria (for mixed choir or boys' choir/women's choir or children's choir, Prague Spring Festival, 1994 and 2014; Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, New York and Avignon Festival in France, among others), string quartet Fragile Balance/Letter to Heaven (Vega String Quartet, Atlanta, 2012), micro-opera King Lávra (Khorikos New York, 2013) and others.

Jirásek's compositions have been published by one of the world's leading publishing houses G. Ricordi & Co., Berlin.

His film music has won a number of prestigious awards: in the Czech Republic, his scores for films by the Czech director F.A. Brabec, Kytice ('The Bouquet'), and the distinguished Slovak director Juraj Jakubisko's Nejasná zpráva o konci sveta ('An Ambiguous Report about the End of the World') have each been awarded the Czech Lion prize.

Jan Jirásek also devotes his time to teaching. He has taught composition at prestigious universities in Europe (Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Vienna; ISAM, Ochsenhausen, Germany and many others), as well as in the United States (Hartt School of Music, Connecticut; Colorado College; Florida International University; Lehigh University, Pennsylvania; University of Colorado at Boulder).

In the liner note for the album Renaissance of Humanity, which includes music by Hildegard von Bingen, Jirásek, and Arvo Pärt (BMG Classics 1995), Samuel Hendricks wrote: "Jirásek's subtle, superb arrangements give clear expression to his musical ideas which, like those of any honest artist, are concerned not with the mask of art but the face behind it."

of
Albums

Jan Jirasek

Jan Jirasek

Composer

Jan Järvlepp was born in Ottawa, Canada of Estonian and Finnish parents in 1953. He began playing pop guitar at the age of 12 and took up cello in high school at the age of 14. He also learned to play bass guitar and harmonica. At the University of Ottawa, McGill University and the University of California, San Diego he majored in composition while developing his cello playing skills. His composition teachers were Luis de Pablo, Alcides Lanza, Roger Reynolds and Will Ogdon. As his studies progressed, he realized that he was not on the same wavelength as his Modernist composition teachers. Once outside of the university environment, he began composing in a newer postmodern style of neo-tonal music that would not be acceptable among the academics. The result has been a series of refreshing and accessible pieces of music that appeal to a surprisingly wide cross-section of the public.

In 1981 Järvlepp returned to Ottawa having completed his doctoral studies in music at UCSD. He joined the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra and has been active as a composer, teacher, freelance cellist, recording technician and as a contractor for chamber music groups. In 1993, the OSO under David Currie performed his Camerata Music to a very receptive audience and in 1996 premiered his percussion concerto, the Garbage Concerto, to a wildly appreciative audience. He has also had a Woodwind Quintet commissioned by the CBC for the well-known Bel Canto Wind Quintet. His quintet Pierrot Solaire was a hit at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival and has become his most popular chamber music work.

His first CD "Soundtracks of the Imagination" has been broadcast by hundreds of radio stations around the world and used by choreographers. His second CD, "Flights of Fancy", continues with a program of more recent chamber music. His "Garbage Concerto" has been recorded by BIS Records and several videos of his music are available on YouTube.

of
Albums

Multi-Artist

Choir

Jitro is an award-winning choir from the Czech Republic. The choir tours regularly in many European, Asian and American countries. Jitro takes part in international music festivals and cooperates with philharmonic orchestras. Choir is a complex institution with a membership of around 350 young singers ranging between 5 and 19 years of age.
www.jitro.cz

of
Albums

Jan Jirasek

Composer

Diane Jones loves writing for and collaborating with performers. With commissions and performances by Mélomanie, The Rel&acircche Ensemble, The Da Capo Chamber Players, Trio Casals, and Flautet, Jones' music reflects her rich, eclectic influences and her love of line and rhythm. Jones' compositions have been featured on two SAMMY award-winning CDs from Samba Laranja (Native Orange, 2011, and Pathways, 2014)

In addition to her work with professional musicians, Jones has completed four separate residencies in Syracuse area middle schools. Not only do the students have the excitement of presenting a world premiere, they get to experience and influence the entire composition process. She has collaborated with choreographer Cheryl Wilkins-Mitchell as part of the Vision of Sound performance series, and with filmmaker and director Ryan Silveira for both live and recorded projects. Jones can be heard on WCNY-FM, Central New York's Classical Radio Station. She is past President of the Society for New Music, and has had her music featured on Fresh Ink, the weekly new music broadcast produced by the Society.
A recipient of the Billy Joel Fellowship, a fellowship with the Chamber Music Institute at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and awarded the prestigious Grace F. and Theodore Berger Award from the University of Delaware, Jones has also been inducted into Pi Kappa Lambda, the music honor society.
Active as a performer as well as a composer, Jones regularly performs with Samba Laranja and the Central New York Flute Choir. She has played flute and piccolo in regional orchestras, and was one half of the flute duo, Flutes of Fancy.
Jones is privileged to have studied with outstanding composers Daniel S. Godfrey, Nicolas Scherzinger, and Jennifer Margaret Barker. www.petdragonmusic.com

of
Albums

Various Artists

Composer

PATRICIA JULIEN writes extensively for theatrical productions, including composing the score for O, Caligula! A Mvsical. In the last ten years, she has composed the music for productions of India Song, Ostentatious Poverty, Eurydice, The Clean House, Peter Pan, The Arabian Nights, The Witches, Anna's Journal, Winnie The Pooh, Marat/Sade, and Coracles, Castanets, Cadaques. She recently wrote the score for the award-winning 2017 short film Anonymous. In addition to dramatic genres, Patricia composes works for mixed-voice choral ensembles, solo voice and piano, orchestra, contemporary chamber ensembles, small jazz combos, and big band. She also writes acoustic and electronic music for dance.